Thirty Ninth Report on Demands for Grants of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for the year 2018-19

India’s ambitious target of achieving 100 gigawatts of installed solar energy capacity by 2022 has received a setback, with the parliamentary panel on energy expressing disappointment with the government’s performance in the sector so far. The committee feels that at the current rate, the target will be very difficult to achieve.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious target of achieving 100 gigawatts of installed solar energy capacity by 2022 has received a setback, with the parliamentary standing committee on energy expressing disappointment with the government’s performance in the sector so far. The committee feels that at the current rate, the target will be very difficult to achieve. The committee observes that for the year 2017-18, against the target of 10,000 MW of grid-connected solar power, the ministry (of new & renewable energy) has been able to achieve only 6166.15 MW (as on 31 January 2018) with utilisation of Rs 951.93 crore, it said in a report tabled in the Lok Sabha. The achievement is about 40 per cent short of the target. For the year 2018-19, a physical target of 11,000 MW for grid-connected solar power has been planned with an allocation of Rs 2045.25 crore. The standing committee also expressed concern over the ministry’s failure to achieve yearly targets. It said the government should have installed 32 GW of solar capacity by 2017-18. However, only 18.45 GW has been installed as of 31 January.